HOME SWEET HOME? An artist's impression of how Everton's new ground may look>

IAN MacDONALD is a spokesman for the Independent Blues Fan Club. He is also firmly not for sharing. The true blue Evertonian outlines his fears and concerns over the repercussions ground-sharing would have for his club.

TO ground-share or not ground-share, that is the question.

Sharing a ground in a big football-mad city might make sound economic common sense, but when did common sense come into the make-up of a passionate football fan?

How will a new stadium be funded? Will the cost be shared equally - and hopefully added to by generous grants?

Liverpool, with their seemingly bottomless money pit, may well stump up their estimated #50million. But how will our club?

We have no money! It hurts to say that of the once-Mersey Millionaires, but we have to live in the present, not the past.

This was cruelly shown when the time came to 'Show us the money' in the Kings Dock stadium process.

Our original contribution was a paltry #30million for a stadium and development project valued at #350m. We will never afford such a stadium again unless we whore ourselves. See how Arsenal have been hit by rising costs.

Could we sell Goodison? In today's market you would be hard pushed to get #4m for the grand old lady with national moneybags being deterred from inner-cities by the government monopoly boards.

We could sell Rooney for #50m to Chelski, but it's in the constitution of the Evertonian that Wayne can never be sold unless he wanted to be.

The Everton board would be asked: "How long do you want the rope from which we will hang you!"

Sell the kid now and you sell our future and dignity.

So straight away we would be the poor relations in the nice Merseyside family stadium and our bargaining power, regarding the colour of seats etc would be very low.

As for the naming rights of the stadium, the Reds' sponsors would have the upper hand.

But which Evertonians are going to go to the Carlsberg Stadium to see a home game?

The next thing you know it won't be just a ground share it will be a total amalgamation.

The old rule that only one club per city can play in Europe may just come into force in the G14's brave new world.

Liverpool (incorporating Everton) will be playing Real Madrid. Then the 'incorporating Everton' bit will be left off in a couple of years.

The local jails would be full, as Evertonian martyrs would get themselves locked up. An Evertonian could set fire to himself in protest in the ground.

We could lose our identity in 20 years, as the richer, fatter fellow tenant becomes a cuckoo throwing us out of the Mersey-side family nest.

Goodison Park is not falling down, though you can only tart the grand old lady up so many times.

But it's ours, paid for and cherished.

If the local council commissioned and paid for a new stadium at a location suitable for both sets of fans with no 'favourite' tenant, a watertight lease, maintained it and satisfied the demands and fears of Evertonians, I'd look twice at the shared stadium project. But I can't see it.

A ground-share will never happen as the fans' opinions are so entrenched that both boards would never broach the subject publicly for fear of the backlash.

Ask the Old Firm if they want to share a stadium. But wear a helmet, we Scousers will at least give you a reply in print, not with a Glasgow Kiss!